Legendary ring — not feeling it

We just got the rundown on the final series of quests for this expansion’s legendary — the ring. I really want to be excited about this, but I just can’t work up any interest, much less enthusiasm, over it. Oh, I will get it for my hunters because I suspect it will be one of those “hafta’s” for raiding. But I doubt if I will pursue it on any of my alts, because — meh.

Now, all of this is conjecture because no one has been able to test the legendary on the PTR, but here is what I see from this latest post.

There will be five versions of the final ring: one tank, one heals, and three DPS. (The blue post makes it look like six, but I think that is because they duped the tank tooltip graphic. Yeah, Blizz is also so excited about this that they could not be troubled to proofread their big announcement…)

How does it work? Whenever one person pops the cooldown on it, it pops for everyone else who has the ring and the same role as the popper. That is, when a tank pops it, both tanks get the effect. When a DPS pops it, all DPS with the ring (no matter which DPS version they have) get the effect, along of course with the two-minute cooldown.

The DPS versions are one each for strength, intellect, and agility. The agi version has absolutely stinko secondary stats for hunters — crit and versatility. (Yet another hunter slap in the face, courtesy of Blizz. But I digress.)

Feeling the buzz yet? Nope, me either. But wait, there’s more. What exactly happens when someone pops it? Well, clearly that depends on which role you are, but let’s take DPS as an example. It does two things for all DPS ring-wearers:

1. Increases damage dealt by 25% for 15 seconds.

2. At the end of the 15 seconds there is a gigantic burst cleave that deals 25% of all ring-bearers’ damage dealt within the 15 seconds. The cleave affects all enemies within 20 yards of the player who first popped the ring. At least I think that is what happens, the tooltip lacks a bit of clarity in my opinion.

Ideally, of course, all damage dealers want to be at the optimal place in their rotations when the ring is popped, and the raid almost certainly will want to simultaneously hit Hero/Time Warp/whatever and have everyone chug their potions. For many encounters — but not all — you will want the tank and heals rings to be popped at the same time. Oh, and also, you will always want your melee to pop the DPS ring to take greatest advantage of the cleave. (So much for my hunters ever controlling their own hard-earned rings….)

Except by sheer luck of course (O, RNG, we implore thee), all these things will never ever happen. The damage increase will almost always be suboptimal, sometimes greatly so. People may hold back on their minor cooldowns prior to The Big Ring Pop so as to be sure to max the ring effect when it occurs, but this will result in lower DPS prior to the ring pop. There is just no way to synchronize rotational optimization, so some DPS will inevitably fare way better than others with the ring usage. Unfortunately for the raid, there is no guarantee that the highest damage dealers will be the ones at the top of their rotations, especially if their highest DPS are ranged. And of course, as if a Raid Leader didn’t already have enough to keep track of, now there has to be some very detailed planning and precise execution to take full advantage of the rings. Honestly, 95% of raid teams will never be able to pull it off except in a half-assed way.

Now are you feeling the buzz? Nope, me either.

In Mists I got the legendary cape on both my hunters as well as on my mistweaver, my warlock, and even my mage. Yes, it got pretty grindy, but I thought the story line was intriguing, and the actual legendary proc was pretty awesome. Not to mention for the first ten minutes of wearing it on each character, I did kind of like strutting around admiring myself with its visual. (Of course I got to the point where I wanted to be able to turn off the visual, but still it was pretty cool.)

But I haven’t been able to get interested in the story line for the ring. Khadgar seems way less interesting to me than the Black Prince was. I never even listen to Khadgar’s speeches, whereas I was fascinated by Wrathion and listened to his speeches at every point in the quest line, on every character.

Since I am uninterested in the story line, and since the final reward seems hardly worth the effort, I will not be getting the ring on my alts. Unfortunately, this means I will probably never be able to pug with them, since legendary ring will quickly become a “gotta have” for all pugs. Even though its complex mechanic means it will be of minimal value to a non-elite raid team. Yet another way that Blizz is making it hard for anyone to have fun with their alts.

How about now, feeling it yet? Nope, me either, and I am pretty sure I am not going to.

Nothing wrong with it, except it is next to worst secondary stat for Beastmastery hunters, versatility being the worst. I just think a “legendary” should give each spec its best stats, which for example for BM hunters would be mastery and either haste or multistrike. The stats also stink for Survival hunters, although they are not bad for Marksman.

But the point is, it is a legendary piece of gear, and trying to get by with a one size fits all for secondary stats is a lazy way out. Plus it means that the ring is less valuable to some DPS than to others, which just seems wrong to me. Blizz backed itself into a corner with the new secondary stats, and they compounded it by taking away reforging. Having made a mess of it, they are too lazy to deal with it, and instead they kind of wave their hand and say oh well, too bad that it doesn’t much help some damage dealers but that’s just the luck of the draw. They act like there is nothing they can do about it, when they most certainly can but they won’t.